Christos Karagiannis wins two Michelin stars in Santorini
Michelin's newly expanded guide for Greece, now covering Santorini and Thessaloniki for the first time, placed Lycabettus straight into the two-star tier.
Christos Karagiannis, executive chef of Lycabettus in Oia, leads the only restaurant in Greece carrying two Michelin stars, after inspectors placed it straight into that tier in the guide's newly expanded selection.
Michelin unveiled the selection on 20 October, extending its coverage beyond Athens for the first time to include Santorini and Thessaloniki, according to Greek City Times. The three destinations list 62 restaurants between them, nearly double the guide's previous footprint in Greece; Thessaloniki's debut carries Bib Gourmand addresses but no stars yet.
Christos Karagiannis Michelin stars
Contemporary French technique applied to Cycladic ingredients, built one central flavour at a time.
Lycabettus, set on the Andronis Luxury Suites terrace above Oia's caldera, is Greece's sole two-star address in the new guide, Keep Talking Greece and elCulture both reported. The restaurant had never appeared in a Michelin selection before, since the guide had not covered Santorini until this edition.
Three more Santorini restaurants earned their first star this round: Botrini's Santorini, led by chef Ettore Botrini, Lauda and Selene, taking the island to five stars across four restaurants. Athens rose to 16 starred restaurants from 12, and Greece's national count reached 21 stars in total, elCulture reported — a jump that echoes Austin's own new stars this week and Dubai's Orfali Bros skipping straight to two stars earlier this month.
A September review by critic Tasos Mitselis, published on fnl-guide.com, scored the restaurant 8.5 out of 10 and credited Karagiannis with contemporary French technique applied to Santorini produce, building dishes such as a tomato trio and a red shrimp tartare around one central ingredient. Dinner runs from €140 a head.
A career built without noise
Andronis, which owns the restaurant, describes Karagiannis as coming from a family with its own culinary history, with roughly a decade spent refining the kitchen's menus around Cycladic ingredients. Mitselis's review called his rise an old-fashioned one, built on years at the stove rather than publicity, before the stars arrived.
The two-star rank had belonged to Delta, at Athens' Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, which drops to one star in the new guide, elCulture reported, without giving a reason. Greece's top distinction now sits on a cliffside terrace in Santorini rather than in the capital, at least until Michelin's inspectors return.
